''The Elsie item'' - USS Landing Craft Infantry National Association

At Last! A Memorial to the "Amphibious Man"! President Jim Talbert presents $1,000 check to Karen Stone, Curator of Education, Calvert Marine Museum, Solomons, Maryland In 1942, the United States Navy established its first amphibioustraining base at Solomons, Maryland. LCIers were among thethousands of sailors, soldiers and coast guardsmen who trainedthere and went on to see action in all theaters of the war. Now,the Calvert Marine Museum, seeking to honor and keep alivethe memory of those men and of the contribution made by themto the winning of the war, has launched a campaign to erect onthe site of the amphibious base, a bronze, better-than-Iife-sizedstatureof the "Amphibious Man", The proposed sculpture isshown on the cover of this issue.While attending the "Cradle of Invasion 2001" celebrations atSolomons in September, Jim Talbert, Tiny Clarkson and JohnCummer were immediately struck with the significance of theproposed memorial and decided that it was just the sort of projectthat the LCI Association needed to support. The decision wasmade to make an immediate $1,000 contribution toward thememorial and Jim had the honor of making the announcementto the crowd assembled for the ceremonies. This makes ourAssociation the first of any veteran's organization to come forwardin support of the project.The Calvert Marine Museum officials were delighted and surprisedby the announcement made by Jim when he asked tospeak to the crowd."Now we are hoping," said Jim, "that individual members ofour LCI Association will want to join in supporting this project.The proposed memorial, as you can see from the artist's rendition,will be one of which we can all be proud!"The residents of Solomons, Maryland, and especially the leadersat the Calvert Marine Museum have noted that as the waryears move farther back into the past, we are in danger of losingthe memory of the base and the people associated with it. Theland on which the base sat is still there, but its use had beenchanged.The owner ofthe Calvert Marina which now occupies the site ofthe old Amphibious Training Base has graciously donated theland for the monument. Depicting an amphibious sailor, lookingout to sea, it will face the water where it will be most visible."The committee is very pleased with the response the memorialhas received, both from the present local community and theveterans who trained here so many years ago" said Karen Stone,Curator of Education for the Museum, "The men and the workthey did at the Amphibious Training Base should never be forgotten.Cradle of Invasion and the monument5